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Only now I remembered that the thread for Hiatari Ryoukou was "washed away" after animesuki's hacking. So it's time to re-create it.

Hiatari Ryoukou MJN's project is not dead. As some of you might have probably noticed, episodes 5 and 6 have been released very recently.

For those who have already heard about this series but never downloaded MJN's releases, I suggest you do so. (Specially because there aren't any other english subbed releases anywhere. Just kiding, MJN's releases are very good by themselves. ) The only thing I have against is the video studder that occurs sometimes, but that's only due to the raw used. Since there's probably no more raw of this series, I can't really complain. ^^

For those who have never heard about the series itself, I strongly recommend it. It's a shounen romance with sports, by Mitsuru Adachi, the creator of Touch. Hiatari Ryoukou anime is very similar to Touch anime in character design, story set, OST style, witty humour - even almost all of Touch's seiyuus performed in Hiatari Ryoukou, which I find to be a spectacular idea. The only major difference is that this time baseball is not a main key in the story development.

But this doesn't mean Hiatari Ryoukou is just a shorter copy of Touch. Instead, Hiatari Ryoukou's is a gem of an anime all by itself - another one by Adachi. The story may be not as brilliant as Touch's, but it's not too far away. The fact that more effort was put into scenery design quality shows that the producers weren't kidding aroud; for 1987, the sceneries are perfectly drawn (all hand-made), most of the times better than Touch's, having that nice warm feel of summer, for their "brightness". Add to that the awesome OST and seiyuu and we have a gem.

Some trivia: Hiatari Ryoukou's manga was released during the late 70's, while Touch's manga only appeared some years later. The manga never had a true ending, and it was a lot shorter than its anime. The anime, however, made its debut right after Touch anime ended in 1987, probably profiting from Touch's huge popularity at the time. The story was extended and completed (a lot than the original, IMO). Hiatari Ryoukou's anime lasted 48 eps and had a movie: I think this shows the favourable acceptance of the viewers.

To make things short: if you like the genres Hiatary Ryoukou is inserted in, then by all mean download this (and Touch, BTW ). You won't be dissapointed.

I've ordered them via a friend in Japan, I should get them in three weeks now ^__^

We'll redo the first episode with better raws (the sound especially will be way better XD ).

Now about the show.

In my humble opinion, i believe it's a rare masterpiece of setting deep relation in anime (or manga for the manga). Adachi really is a master in building strong and deep characters. As long as you have an heart you'll love it XD

Oddly enough, another one that surprised me. Saw an episode released a few weeks ago and scoped it out history wise. Checking its background I noticed that it was years between releases. This seemed to mean that SOMEONE there liked it enough to revive it so I thought "Hey, these Pocky are stale." I'm not sure why I thought that since it had nothing to do with the series. Still, it seemed like a lark to check out the first couple episodes so I could be snobbish about having seen some more "old school" anime.

After seeing the first couple episodes, I noticed this horrible flaw in the show: I liked all the main characters. They all seemed like legitimate people you would know (or at least would want to know). They were smart without being pompus, funny without being stupid, and even when teasing each other seemed more friendly than mean.

The true test for it came when I was asked "whats new this weekend" by friends. After sitting and watching the first episode, it was unanimous that we watch the rest. How well did they like it? Well enough that I was serious trouble when I couldn't magically produce more episodes. (And this is a group that varies between 14 and 52, male and female.)

And now you tell me that there are actually DVDs released? You..... (hmmm, I did get my refund this week......)

Anyway, yes, it does look like Touch and has a stong feel of the same but definatly stands on its own instead of seeming to be some sort of clone or offshoot. Another great show that seems to get overlooked for flashier mecha-love-magical-fan shows (not that I have anything against them since they make up a large chunk of the clubs drive space). That's something rather sad.

Man this is disjointed. I need to switch to decaf at work. Anyway, looking forward to the next ones. (And I'm sure once some more episodes start coming in it's popularity will rise as people "discover" this.)

The dvd are freshly released.
I wasn't even expecting them (didn't thought that they'd release them so "lately"). But as soon as I saw them i emptyed my bank account

I still love Touch more, I was raised under the Touch anime after all ^__^. But I do love Hiatari. The ambiance in this anime is very well made. From the characters to the story passing by the musics, i find all of it very nice.

We'll try to do our best on it, and to move faster than 4 releases by year

Yay! Hiatari Ryouko! What a sunny day ... ! lolzorz ... I am waiting for this series, honestly. I tried downloading the first episode but it was already two hours, and I still couldn't connect so I just stopped.

Finished the DVDs 3 weeks back. Enjoyed it. Personally, I still prefer Touch. However, Hiatari Ryoukou! is a good show to follow up after watching Touch. You get most of the same voice actors and some of the character designs transfered over (talk about cost saving ). It's more a romantic comedy compared to Touch.

I decided I won't download Touch just simply because it's too long ... 101 episodes! I don't have a DVD burner so it would take a whole lot of encoding just to fit those in how many discs.

I was amazed at how much I liked Hiatari Ryoukou despite its aged animation AND aged animation. The characters are realistic, funny, and believable - and they immediately grow on you ... Adachi, I agree, was a genius: despite the visible lack they had in animation compared to visual representations of coolness like Ergo Proxy, they still manage to pull off a very good story and a very funny cast of characters. I applaud MJN for subbing this release, and I applaud Adachi's genius. I also applaud myself for watching despite the UGLY animation and even UGLIER sound. Everything else is just perfect.

Finished the DVDs 3 weeks back. Enjoyed it. Personally, I still prefer Touch. However, Hiatari Ryoukou! is a good show to follow up after watching Touch. You get most of the same voice actors and some of the character designs transfered over (talk about cost saving ). It's more a romantic comedy compared to Touch.

I have to say I prefer it to touch myself, even though Ive only seen a few episodes.

Touch was a great series, but it was very traumatic and deadly serious alot of the time.

I decided I won't download Touch just simply because it's too long ... 101 episodes!

You're missing out on a classic anime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by physics223

I don't have a DVD burner so it would take a whole lot of encoding just to fit those in how many discs.

Let's see... 101 episodes can be fit into 34 CDs if saved as 3 episodes/CD. That's not many

Quote:

Originally Posted by physics223

I was amazed at how much I liked Hiatari Ryoukou despite its aged animation AND aged animation. The characters are realistic, funny, and believable - and they immediately grow on you ... Adachi, I agree, was a genius: despite the visible lack they had in animation compared to visual representations of coolness like Ergo Proxy, they still manage to pull off a very good story and a very funny cast of characters. I applaud MJN for subbing this release, and I applaud Adachi's genius. I also applaud myself for watching despite the UGLY animation and even UGLIER sound. Everything else is just perfect.

The animation is good for a TV series at that time. In any case, we should be watching and praising anime series because of well developed stories and characters which both Adachi series, Touch and Hiatari Ryoukou!, have in abundance.

Pick up Touch to watch. I think you may regret not watching the series sooner.

After a in-depth check of the otaku rulebook, I find there is a clause that says you CAN just download a couple episodes at a time to see if you like it before dedicating weeks of your time to it. (Though most find something that catches their eyes and then jump in like hyper-strung weasels on Red Bull.)

Come on, just download the first couple episodes. It's okay. You could quit anytime. And all the geeky kids are doing it! If you like it, you can get a couple more next week. And then the week after that. If you do it right you can have something to look forward to for an entire year.

Besides, I don't want an anime that's too serious with romance (KGNE n00000000!) ... so Hiatari Ryoukou is good enough. One of the better parts, if not the best, of the anime was that it kept me smiling. It's strikingly unobnoxious ...